Pat Henshaw (2) (1947–)

Blame it on the Fruitcake is a short story in Dreamspinner’s 2015 Advent Calendar – Sleigh Ride Anthology. It’s told in first person through the eyes of Sam McGuire, a motorcycle mechanic. Sam’s interest is Jay, a neighbor.

2.5



I had high hopes for this story because…fruitcake! I love fruitcake and I wanted this story to be just as delicious and fun as it is to eat a properly made fruitcake. But alas, this book was a poor version of fruitcake. This story was as flat as Sam’s monotone voice. There was a lot of monologue which turned this story into all telling, instead of showing.

Sam finds a note and fruitcake at his front door. It’s from the neighbor down the hall. The note invites him to a holiday party. Sam goes because he’s hoping for more fruitcake. A case of mistaken identity happens at the beginning. After that there’s Jay’s meddling family members, both good and bad.

There are a lot of plot holes. We don’t find out much about Sam’s background, other than what he tells the reader. Sam has big insecurity issues because of the way he grew up. We don’t really find out much about Jay either, except what he tells Sam towards the end of the book. And we never find out about Brian’s behavior, even though Jay and his grandmother hinted that Brian had caused trouble before. I would have liked to know what gave them reason to think that Brian was the one causing problems for Sam. What had Brian done before?

This does have a HEA and is a very fast read, but I couldn’t feel the attraction between the two MC’s partly because they weren't fleshed out. The telling kept me removed from the story, along with not relating to the characters. I can’t really recommend this to anyone, although by the other reviews I’m in the minority on how this book is rated. I wouldn’t read this book again. I’d like to give this 2.5 stars but no half stars on Goodreads, so I’ll give Blame it on the Fruitcake, 3 Stars, because I love fruitcake.


… (meer)